Friday, September 09, 2005

Leave it to Newsday and it's free-daily paper, AMNewYork to publish a story of a mother who lost her son on 9/11 and is against our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to highlight the 4th anniversary of September 11th. The article reads like it was lifted off Moveon.org's website, ironically it contains sections that can be found on Code Pink's website, Ms. Welty claims that Americans are ignorant and soldiers are brutal and target civilians. Her real feelings must have been edited out.

I am not trying to take anything away from the pain and suffering she must feel for the loss of her son in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. She has every right to protest until her heart is content. I have a problem with with Newsday, for they fail to mention Ms. Welty's activism in the wake of her son's death and they seem to be trying to get a "Sheehan moment" out of her.

A simple Google search shows that Ms. Welty has written for Code Pink on her time in Jordan, where she passes on random rumors as fact, stories of American soldiers raping women in Iraq, using chemical weapons, and running over cars full of children with tanks. Passing on these rumors make American soldiers look like monsters and do more to harm our men and women than any story on Al Jazeera.

"I told them that Timmy had died on9/11 trying to rescue civilians trapped in the twin towers and that now innocent civilians are being killed in his name and we were all trying to stop it....tanks rolling over and crushing cars on the road, cars filled with people....incidents of rape, the rape of teenage girls before the eyes of their parents and siblings.....One of the Iraqis told us about a Human Rights meeting that was held over a year ago where his brother gave a speech. American troops broke up the meeting and randomly shot nine people. Two were pushed up against a wall and shot."

She has been interviewed by leftist, Democracy Now. She has teamed up with MoveOn.org, the ACLU, and 911Truth (wants to blame the government for 9/11) among others. Somehow, none of this made it into the article in AM NewYork or Newsday.

I'm not a journalist, nor do I want to claim to be one. But, should the activism be disclosed in articles like these? If Ms. Welty had instead, became a Freeper, supported President Bush, and rallied for the troops instead of against them, would Newsday include that in their article?